In this paper the authors render the results of research investigating adult attachment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of Belgian security workers. The sample contained 3 subsamples: 68 individuals who had directly experienced a critical incident, 67 individuals
who indirectly went through a critical incident, and 77 individuals who had not experienced a critical incident in the last six months. The analysis of the research results shows that the secure attachment style and the three PTSD trauma symptom clusters in DSM-IV - intrusion, avoidance/numbing,
and hyperarousal - discriminate between the three subsamples. In other words, security workers who were directly and actively confronted with a critical incident were significantly more insecurely attached and suffered significantly more from PTSD symptoms than the groups who had no or indirect
experience of a critical incident. Furthermore, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely and quite efficiently used in the treatment of PTSD. Interest has been expressed in medical approaches.

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Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 2008-01-01

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